NHL: With deal done, Boston Bruins will open camp today

Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask chats with teammates during a workout last week at Boston University.

A perfect new sheet of ice, unscarred by NHL skates, shimmered like glass under the auxiliary lights of TD Garden on Saturday.

Down the hall, Bruins public relations personnel and a horde of media types waited out a press conference that was never held involving team president Cam Neely and general manager Peter Chiarelli.

With the new collective bargaining agreement between owners and players still not official because of a technicality, the Bruins postponed the press conference at the last minute. After a 3-1/2-hour wait, it was decided the session would be held today.

The league and the players' association didn't complete their required “memorandum of understanding” until just before 11 p.m. Saturday. That paperwork had to be signed before camps were cleared to open, which will happen today, with a 48-game regular season to begin next Saturday.

Boston will open the season here at 7 p.m. against the New York Rangers with another home game at 1 p.m. the following Monday vs. Winnipeg. In fact, five of the Bruins' first seven games will be at TD Garden.

When the last lockout of 2004-05 was settled, the league blew past the MOU and the NHLPA wound up extracting some unexpected advantages from the unfinished fine print. So, there was no way either side wanted to be victimized by that again after having fought since September for every inch.

Meanwhile, a bunch of Bruins were practicing informally Saturday at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington. The Garden was off-limits until labor peace was proclaimed officially.

Now that the final word has come down, everything will follow in rapid succession, including the release of the new schedule — minus the 510 games that were lost to the lockout — as well as training camp rosters and dates.

Camp sessions can't begin until all players have had physicals, but those should be completed this morning. Some have been done, but not all, which could result in a minor delay.

But after being kept waiting for four months, what's another few hours, right?

Former Boston University star Jay Pandolfo, the veteran New Jersey Devils checking forward who spent last season with the Islanders, has been invited to Boston's camp. He has been practicing all week with other Bruins in Wilmington.

Pandolfo, 38, plays left wing, which is where the Bruins have an opening on their third line because of the trade of Benoit Pouliot and the injury suffered recently by Jordan Caron in Providence. Chris Bourque could also fit in there, alongside ChrisKelly and Rich Peverley.

Caron is expected to be out another two weeks. He hadn't played that well for the P-Bruins anyway (6-2-8 totals in 31 games with a minus-6).

While the Bruins couldn't officially announce their training camp roster until all labor issues were settled, Providence Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy had disclosed which of his players had been invited to try out in Boston.

Besides Bourque, they include forwards Ryan Spooner, Lane MacDermid and Jamie Tardif and defensemen Matt Bartkowski and David Warsofsky. Realistically, only Bourque and Bartkowski have a real shot at sticking, while MacDermid has an outside chance.

Bartkowski could end up starting the season in place of Adam McQuaid, who still is recovering from blood clot surgery this fall. Also in that mix is Aaron Johnson.

Backup goalie Anton Khudobin, who played in the KHL during the lockout, has let it be known that he might return to Russia fulltime when his contract with the Bruins runs out after this season.

That would leave the Bruins with Tuukka Rask, who also will be a free agent after the season, and Providence's Michael Hutchinson and Niklas Svedberg.

The wild card in all this, of course, is Tim Thomas and whether he plans to return next season, as he has stated, or whether he'll push Boston to trade him. It's clear that much of his loyalty to the Bruins has been eroded since the White House boycott and his Facebook rants.

Nathan Horton, whose next concussion is liable to be his last, has declared himself fit and ready for the season.

“I feel great,” he said the other day. “I've had a lot of time to work out and get back to normal. Obviously, it's been tough for everyone this year. It's not the way anybody wanted it to be. But I feel great — better than I have in a long time.”

Horton, of course, was one of the big heroes of the Bruins' 2011 Stanley Cup championship before he was knocked out in the finals by Vancouver's Aaron Rome. He returned last season but another concussion eventually cut his season short on April 11.

Horton chose not to play during the lockout, but said it had nothing to do with his health.

“I didn't think it was going to be this long — I don't think anybody did,” he said. “It's definitely tough. But getting back to normal and feeling like myself again, it makes me excited to be back.”

It'll be interesting to see how Horton, Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand, all of whom chose not to play organized hockey during the lockout, will fare in camp and early in the shortened season.

Lucic insisted the other day that he's in shape, telling hosts Toucher and Rich on Sports Hub radio 98.5 FM: “I haven't gotten fat, I know that much. I will say, after not playing a game since the end of April, it's tough to be in peak game shape in January like you're used to.”

The real test for Lucic, as most Bruins fans know, will be the playoffs, where he hasn't lived up to his potential in the past. In 62 postseason games, Gino has just 15 goals and 20 assists.

Shawn Thornton didn't play a lot of hockey during the lockout, but he did do a lot of what he does best — punching. He was up every day at 5 a.m., lifting weights in the gym by 6:15 and skating from 8 to 11 at Boston University. Late in the afternoon, he would report to The Ring boxing club on Commonwealth Avenue and punch the mitts under the guidance of trainer Tommy McInerney.

After nine seasons near the bottom of the NHL pay scale, Thornton finally joined the million-dollar salary club in March when he signed a two-year extension worth $1.1 million a year. Trouble is, with the season cut by close to half, he'll earn only a portion of that now.

Next season could be the last for the 35-year-old Thornton, who shared the NHL lead last season with 20 fighting majors.

The Bruins had more players laboring in Europe during the lockout (12) than any other NHL team. According to NHL.com, the Flyers were next with 11 and the Red Wings had 10. ... In its preseason NHL power rankings, TSN.ca has Pittsburgh No. 1, the Rangers No. 2, and Boston No. 3. ... Brian Rolston, the two-time Bruins forward who remains a free agent with no takers, said he is “more than likely” to retire after having spent 17 seasons with five teams. He'll turn 40 in February. ... Lucic will become a father later this month. His wife, Brittany, is due in less than three weeks.